


When Simmons became Jemma

by sherlylikeswaffles



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, FitzSimmons - Freeform, Fluff, Love Confessions, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 11:17:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3766141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherlylikeswaffles/pseuds/sherlylikeswaffles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This fic is set somewhere after Jemma returned from her work inside Hydra. Fitz remembers how he fell in love with Jemma, when she comes to talk to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Simmons became Jemma

**Author's Note:**

> My first Fitzsimmons Fanfiction! I watched most of Agents of Shield in the past week or something like that. I have so many Fitzsimmons feels, I just had to write about them. Enjoy! And please take the time to leave a short comment! Thank you!

Her name is Simmons and she proved to be smarter than him. At the Academy during their first year everyone was talking about her and how smart Simmons was and whether or not Fitz was just as smart as her or smarter. Now Fitz knew it for sure. She was smarter but it didn't bother him. It was one of the reasons he fell in love with her. In love with Simmons. Jemma.  
Back at the Academy, first names weren't really a thing. All your professors, fellow students and friends, if you got any, called you by your surname or maybe a nick name. But first names? Over rated.  
So then Jemma Simmons first introduced herself by saying: “I'm Simmons. Jemma Simmons.“ He remembered Jemma. He thought it was a nice name, a special name back then. Still he never called her anything but Simmons and she never called him anything but Fitz.  
He fell in love with her gradually. He didn't even notice it happening. Yet in retrospect he realises that when Simmons became Jemma to him, there was no turning back. 

There were the little things he remembers. One time Coulson came into the lab, when Fitz was by himself and asked: “Has Simmons finished the report yet?“  
“Yes, Jemma has,“ Fitz replied without meaning to put an emphasis on her name.  
“What was that?“ Coulson asked again, smiling.  
“Yes, Simmons has finished the report. She was just checking on something. She'll be right back and hand it to you.“  
When she walked in just minutes later, he called: “Hey, Jemma.“  
Jemma looked puzzled for a moment but then she gave him one of her dazzling smiles. 

Then on another occasion Skye walked into the lab.  
“Hey, Fitzsimmons,“ she greeted them. “I wanted to ask you two something. Something personal.“  
Fitz and Simmons shared a puzzled look and then said unison: “Okay.“  
Skye made an unnecessarily long pause to draw out the suspense and then said: “What are your first names?“  
“What?“ Fitzsimmons asked.  
“Your first names...usually everybody has two names. I mean everyone calls me Skye because that's the name I gave myself. But you two must have names your parents gave you other than Fitz and Simmons?“  
Fitzsimmons shared yet another look, then Simmons said: “Leo, Leopold Fitz“ and Fitz said:  
“Jemma, Jemma Simmons“.  
Skye smiled: “Nice. And why don't you call each other by your first names? You're best friends after all.”  
Fitz didn't know why he never called Simmons Jemma. He had actually never thought about it before. Neither had Simmons, judging from the look on her face. He knew that technically being on first name basis means you have a more personal relationship with someone but he couldn't imagine having a closer relationship to anyone other than Simmons.  
“We don't know,” Fitz said.  
“We never actually thought about it,” Simmons added.  
“We have always been Fitz and Simmons,” explained Fitz.  
“Yes, back at the Academy no one cared about your first name,” Simmons said.  
Skye nodded and watched them curiously.  
“And since when are you Fitzsimmons?” she asked and she couldn't help but smile at them when the two scientists once again exchanged a confused look.  
“Since forever,” Fitz replied without thinking. It seemed to be the obvious answer. He looked at Simmons for her confirmation. She nodded, but then she pulled her eyebrows together in a small frown.  
“Actually not exactly. I mean figuratively spoken I would say forever covers it quite well because we have been lab partners since a few weeks after we started at the Academy. But literally spoken, we have been Fitzsimmons for about ten years now. Which, considering the conception of time and the past of human life, is, in fact, not forever,” Simmons remarked.  
Fitz was amazed about how much time Simmons had spent thinking about it, about Fitzsimmons, about them.  
Skye just rolled her eyes. “Ten years, for me that's definitely forever. Anyway I just wanted to know your first names...Leo...Jemma...I better get going so you two can do some more science.”  
Skye was about to leave the lab, when Simmons called after her: “Why did you ask? I mean you're a hacker. You could have looked it up somewhere.”  
“I didn't want to stalk my friends,” Skye replied, “but of course I've already known”. She waved them good bye.  
“What was that about?” Fitz asked Simmons as soon as she was gone.  
“Oh, I think she was just...I guess chatting.”  
“Okay. All right,” Fitz changed the topic then, because something on their scan had caught his attention. 

Some nights he still woke up sweating and screaming. Some times he sees her drowning, but more often he sees her the way she looked before she jumped out of the Bus. “Jemma!” he had shouted, “Jemma, no!” He had shouted at the top of his lungs. Louder than he ever had. If ever there was a moment he felt certain that he was in love with her, it was this moment, when he thought he would loose her forever. She survived and he never been more relived. And then she told him that he was the hero. If he hadn't already been in love with her, he would have fallen for her right then and ther. And when she kissed him on the cheek, he thought it couldn't get any more perfect. The night after this incident he woke up from his first bad dream about loosing her. When he had calmed down a bit, he whispered to himself: “Jemma is safe”. From that moment on he always thought of her as Jemma rather than Simmons. 

“What is in that box?” He remembers the way Eric asked him that question. His first reaction was to analyse the situation and come to a profound conclusion about what would be the best and most useful content of the box.  
“What is in that box?” The first thing, the first person that came to his mind was Jemma. “Simmons,” he told Eric. He didn't know exactly why he didn't say “Jemma”. Maybe it was because as Simmons, she was Simmons, the scientist. Simmons, his best friend and lab partner. Simmons, with whom he could solve any problem.  
But Jemma was more than that. Jemma was the girl he loved. 

Fitz remembers all this while he analyses some samples. His mind wanders off to Jemma all the time. He can't help wondering why she left and how things got so messed up between them. Maybe he shouldn't have told her, but when she said: “You're my best friend in the world” and he knew it was now or never. He didn't regret having said those words, but he regrets that she doesn't feel the same way about him.  
“Leo.”  
Fitz looks up, startled. It's Jemma. Maybe they still have their mental connection. Maybe him thinking about her, pulled her towards him. He dismisses this thought but then he notices: She called him “Leo”. His heart beats faster. This has to mean something. At least something little. The fact that she used his first name makes him feel excited. She stands before the door of the lab, ready to leave any moment. But still, she slowly goes towards him.  
“Leo,” she repeats. He just looks at her, trying to memorise forever, literally forever, how his name sounds said by her, better somehow, special.  
“I have to talk to you,” she continues. This doesn't sound too good. But maybe he should simply let her talk and then be done with it instead of procrastinating this any further. Time, he realised, doesn't solve everything.  
He nods, not sure what to say.  
Jemma stands in front of him now. There is no table or hologram between them. Just air and space.  
“I want to talk to you about what happened in the med pot. About what you said to me...”, Jemma starts, she is struggling for the right words. He can see it and he used to help her, finished her sentences, just as she did with his. But now, he just stares at her, taking in her beauty. He doesn't know how many times he will able to look at her directly when this conversation is over.  
“I realise I didn't react the way, you wanted me to react...you hoped I would react. It's just...there wasn't much time...it was all happening too fast. I couldn't get a clear thought and then you pushed the button...”  
“Jemma,” he interrupts her. He can't stand her rambling any longer, “please stop. It wasn't your fault that...,” Now he was lost for words, too. “Jemma, you don't need to apologise. It's okay. I'm okay.”  
“No, Fitz...Leo it's not. I shouldn't have left without telling you why and where. In fact, I shouldn't have left at all. You said that I'm the one who is afraid of change. And you were right. So much has happened in these past months. Our whole world changed. But you know, you and me, Fitzsimmons, we have been together the whole damn time in the lab and I never thought there was any way this could change. You were that one constant in a time of changes. So...I want you as my friend back. Or at least as my lab partner because we are some much better when we work together...”  
This is exactly what he feared. The only thing that hurts more than her rejection was the pain in her voice.  
“No, Jemma, I'm sorry. But I can't. We can't work together.”  
“But, why Fitz?”  
“Because...because no matter how many things might change...how much our world is upside down...I won't stop being in love with you. Over the past years I gradually fell in love with you. Every day a little more and now I can't just turn it off and everything goes back to normal. Jemma, I think it's best...”  
But Jemma never found out what would be best, instead she kisses him. At first, Fitz is shocked. He didn't expect this. But then he realises: Jemma is kissing him! And it feels amazing. He imagined kissing her a hundred times but reality proves to be much better than any simulation. Leo pulls her closer and kisses her back. She puts her hand into his curly hair and doesn't let go of him.  
When they finally break apart, she whispers: “This should have been my reaction to what you told me in the ocean.”  
“Jemma?” It's just her name, but he conveys so many questions in it.  
Jemma giggles. Her arms are still tightly around him.  
“Fitz, I'm sorry. Maybe I should have warned you. I just had to make sure you still loved me and that it wasn't already too late, that you moved on.”  
“So you tricked me into spilling out my feelings for you.” He doesn't know if he can be angry with her.  
“I'm sorry. But otherwise it would have been...”  
“Awkward?”  
Jemma nodded: “And painful.”  
“For both of us.”  
“I guess it's my turn now.”  
“Your turn with what?” Fitz asks, looking at her. It feels so good to just look at her without having to break eye contact every few seconds out of embarrassment.  
“My turn to tell you that I love you,” Jemma says, smiling.  
“You do?” It is supposed to be jokingly, but actually it sounds doubtfully.  
“Of course, I do, Leo,” Jemma replies and kisses him again.


End file.
